Pup
by Taisi
Summary: Sesshoumaru goes through a strange epiphany one cold night, brought on only by a scared little girl seeking his comfort. Sesshy!Daddy


The moon's evanescent rays filtered dimly throught the leaves that whistled quietly in the wind, to land in intricate prisms on the matted forest floor. The air was cold, and the night was still. Even the youkai were quiet. Mist floated eerily through the trees, half-concealing the trunks and brush of a large, scattered percentage of the woods.

Tucked against a tree trunk, a small green imp muttered in its sleep, twisting and turning, hugging its staff closer to it. The last glowing embers of the fire died, taking with them their soft lumination. A little dark-haired girl shuddered in the cold, and prodded at the fire with her bare hand.

"You shouldn't poke around in a fire pit."

Rin looked up, surprised--but not unpleasantly so--to see him standing so suddenly before her. "Lord Sesshoumaru!" she greeted in an enthusiastic, but low voice, so as not to disturb Jakken.

"Why were you prodding at the embers?" the dog demon asked, face and voice impassive.

Rin rubbed her arms through the thin sleeves of her kimono. "I'm just so cold," she whispered softly. "And I couldn't sleep."

Sesshoumaru was silent, but he sat beside her. She smiled wider at him, but didn't move any closer out of respect. _What kind of human feels grateful for the company of a demon? _Immediately, he thought of his half-demon disgrace of a brother, and his miko, and cast the thoughts aside with disgust. Surely there's was a case much different than this one.

"Lord Sesshoumaru?"

He met her gaze to show he was listening, and nearly showed some concern to see some anxiety play itself across her young face. Before he get emmerse himself in a bout of self-loathing at that, Rin had turned around from where she'd been rustling at the base of a tree, and pulled out a spent torch, and a dagger crusted with dried blood. Sesshoumaru's eyes widened the merest fraction of an inch, and he asked sharply, "Where did you get those?"

"I found them." The girl wouldn't meet his gaze.

He studied her for a long moment, then said in his no-nonsense voice, "Rin." She fidgeted, and he tipped her chin up to look her in the eye. "Are you afraid?"

"There were bandits here," she said softly, eyes doleful and filled with unshed tears. "They're probably out plundering some village, or getting drunk with all the money they got from selling the goods they sold."

Something somewhere in his chest constricted, but he didn't pause to wonder why. "Are you afraid they'll kill you as they did you're family?"

She nodded, eyes hugging the ground again. Sesshoumaru reached forward swiftly and tugged the imposing items out of her hands. Then, in the same movement, he pulled the girl against him. Not an embrace; he just leaned her against him, so she could lay against his tail for warmth. Or at least, that's what he'd planned. But she crawled the rest of the way in his lap, and fell asleep tucked into a tight, shivering ball.

Sesshoumaru almost shoved her off him, but something else--some primal instinct--would have nothing of it. That same something screamed, _Pup! _Sesshoumaru stared down at her, wondering how someone who'd gone through so much in life could find it in her to trust anyone ever again, much less a hated and despised demon. And sure, life on the road with Jakken and himself was no picnic; with Jakken's harsh words and his constant berating her, it's a wonder she didn't beg to be left at each human settlement they passed. But she only cheerfully accepted Jakken's complaints as part of his personality, and Sesshoumaru's superiour silence a part of his.

He did nothing to earn this little creature's trust; and yet he had it all the same. And that same annoying something told him that he would always have it until the day Rin died.

That struck him. _"When I die, will you always remember me?" _Almost instantly, the Something began forming thoughts in his head that he knew couldn't belong to him.

_No--she will not die. I won't let my pup die before me._

In his lap, as though sensing his epiphany through her dreams, Rin smiled softly, warming Sesshoumaru from the bottom of that thing in his chest, all the way to the top.

**Random one-shot idea I got after watching episode...162, I'm pretty sure. That's my current favorite episode, by the way. XD Just so cute!**


End file.
